Most teams like to think of the road to the NCAA tournament as a nice stroll through their regular season schedule as they gently discard teams on their way to the postseason. But for this year's Duke volleyball team, it was quite a different story. The 1994 Blue Devils were faced with a twisting and turning, hurdled-filled road that lead to the NCAAs. It finally got them to their destination with a 24-6 record and a No. 21 ranking, but not without a great deal of effort.
The goal for this year's team was simple -- to improve on what last year's team had done. But when you consider what last year's team did, that goal seems increasingly difficult. In the 1993 campaign, Duke won its third straight Atlantic Coast Conference title and became the first ACC team to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
To move past these goals would mean Duke would have to beat a top-ranked team and solidify itself as a top-10 program. In 1994, Duke won the ACC tournament title for the fourth time in as many years and also hosted a home NCAA tournament match. In the end, though, the Blue Devils fell one game short of their goal as they were defeated by eventual tournament runner-up UCLA 15-3, 15-3, 15-4 in a round-of-16 matchup in Gainesville, Fla. While Duke did not meet its original goal, it's hard to call this team a failure.
"The team from the year before reached the Sweet 16," head coach Jon Wilson said. "When you follow a team like that, it's extremely hard to repeat that performance. It's easy to underachieve because there is so much expectation. To achieve the way we did means the team did equal to the team before or maybe even better."
One thing which Duke was able to do this season was sit at home during the first round of the NCAAs. After spending the last two years as the fifth seed in their region, the Blue Devils grabbed a four seed this year and were given a first-round bye. Duke also earned a second-round home match, in which it blew past Georgia 15-11, 15-3, 15-4 in front of a raucous Cameron crowd.
"The Georgia match was one of the highlights of my career," senior Tami Peterson said. "It was the largest crowd at one of our games. It helped Duke volleyball learn to play with a crowd."
"Coming into the whole tournament with a bye was a sign that we had gotten national respect," sophomore Kristin McMahon said. "We didn't have to play both a first and second round game."
While national respect did eventually come to Duke through that game, at many points during the season it looked as if Duke would never achieve the respect they felt they deserved. The first setback of the season occurred when returning setter Cappy Meyer, the 1992 ACC Rookie of the Year, transferred after the first weekend of the season. Enter freshman Kristen Campbell. Campbell was suddenly thrown into the role of feeding the ball to established seniors Adrian Nicol and Ashley Wacholder.
"Our team had to see that as an early obstacle," Peterson said. "Kristen did a great job. She was very focused and did a lot of extra work."
The switch didn't seem to affect Duke in the least as it won its first eight games while dropping only four sets. Then came Duke's next hurdle. After losing a five-set match to North Carolina at home, Duke lost its next two matches to top-ranked Nebraska the following weekend. Two more ACC losses later in the year to Georgia Tech and Clemson had many people believing that almighty Duke was going to lose its stranglehold on the ACC title.
"If you beat teams year after year, they become hungry for you," Wilson said. "The UNC game woke us up and showed us that we were beatable if we didn't play well. I think if you're any good at all you recover from those type of losses."
Duke did just that as they swept through the ACC tournament without losing a set. Duke was also able to exact revenge on the Tigers by beating them in the championship game.
At season's end the four seniors of this team -- Briar Blach, Nicol, Peterson and Wacholder -- walked away with more awards and memories than any team should be allowed to accumulate. Along with the ACC and NCAA experiences, the seniors have garnered two Player of the Year awards, Wacholder taking the prize in 1993 and Nicol bringing it home in 1994.
"It's been amazing playing with them," McMahon said of this year's senior class. "They do so much not only on the court but off of it."
Duke volleyball will certainly miss the four seniors and the success they brought to the team. It's important, however, to realize how much they leave behind.
"I'm just focusing on the fact that it was really important to have them here," Wilson said. "The seniors leave a heritage of winning. Winning is a skill like serving, setting, and spiking."
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